Martha Vasconcellos

Martha Vasconcellos (born Martha Maria Cordeiro Vasconcellos, c. 1948), is a Brazilian who became that country's second Miss Universe winner,^[1] after Ieda Maria Vargas first achieved the feat in 1963. She also became the fifth Latin American to win the title, after Peru's Gladys Zender in 1957, Colombia's Luz Marina Zuluaga in 1958 and Argentina's Norma Nolan in 1962. Vasconcellos is a native of the state of Bahia.

Biography

Vasconcellos allegedly had a boyfriend since she was twelve when she represented Brazil at the 1968 Miss Universe pageant in Miami Beach, Florida. She beat 64 contestants, including Curaçao's Anne Marie Braafheid (the first Black woman to become first runner up in Miss Universe history), to win the title.

The morning after her win, she called her family and boyfriend in Brazil, expressing feelings of being homesick. Vasconcellos lived in New York, New York for the next year, as required by the Miss Universe organization, then returned to Brazil in 1969 and married days after.

Vasconcellos today leads a quiet and private life, practically disappearing from the public eye. She has two children from her first wedding to Reinaldo Loureiro: Leonardo and Leilane, and has two grandsons, Felipe and Guilherme.

Martha currently is resides in the Boston, Massachusetts area and works for a Portuguese-speaking organization as a victims rights counselor.

See also

List of Brazilians

References

1. ^ Birnbaum, Cara (2006-03-15). Universal Beauty: The Miss Universe Guide to Beauty. Thomas Nelson Inc. pp. 26–. ISBN 9781401602291. http://books.google.com/books?id=USm5GW58AbMC&pg=PA26. Retrieved 15 May 2011. 

External links

• page about Vasconcellos

Preceded by Carmen Sílvia de Barros Ramasco

Miss Brasil 1968

Succeeded by Vera Fischer

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Name	Vasconcellos, Martha
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Date of birth	1949
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